Art Basel Miami Parties Kick Off with Stella McCartney, Chanel, Art.sy and More

By lunchtime yesterday, the backup of black SUVs on Collins Avenue had already ensured that walking would be the most efficient mode of travel for the remainder of this week, which marks the eleventh iteration of Art Basel Miami Beach. “What is this?” one taxi driver wondered aloud, surveying the congestion. “Is Obama here?” Indeed, plenty of works of art at the Convention Center featured the president’s likeness—most celebratory, a few critical—but South Beach’s collective energy (and gridlock) was in anticipation of the parties just a few blocks away.

First up was **Laure Hériard Dubreuil’**s afternoon tea in honor of Stella McCartney, who has been in town promoting her latest fragrance L.I.L.Y. (an acronym for Linda I Love You, **Paul McCartney’**s nickname for Stella’s mother). Gathered on the second floor of the Webster, both boutique owner and designer opted for the same pair of orange pointed platforms from McCartney’s resort collection while the latter embraced her many fans who had come just to score a picture standing next to her. “Stella’s a rock star!” said one woman, perhaps failing to recall that the designer is, in fact, the progeny of an actual music legend. The same woman promptly removed her McCartney-designed bootie so that Stella could autograph its sole. Actress Marcia Cross, in town with her husband for the fair, found herself at the tea party by complete accident. “I came in to do some shopping, looked up, and BAM, there’s Stella McCartney!”

Dubreuil did double-duty yesterday, casting off her head-to-toe Stella daytime ensemble for a similarly uniform Valentino look—so carefully thought out that her polka-dotted clutch matched her similarly decorated nails—for the Interview magazine cocktails held a few hours later. The Webster’s rooftop hosted Owen Wilson huddled on the balcony with Peter Brant, whose teenage sons were also in attendance, while cohostess Sofía Sanchez Barrenechea dangled a large Webster shopping bag. “I just now went shopping for the party,” the art director admitted, showing off her new acquisition: last season’s impossible-to-find Balenciaga black patent military boots. “I guess they’re vintage now,” she said. They were also the Webster’s very last pair.

Several blocks away at the Herzog & de Meuron–designed 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage, Dalia Oberlander feted **Monique Péan’**s new K’Atun collection, each piece of which features a cut from actual dinosaur bones. Pointing to one particularly intricate rust-colored fossil, Péan indicated that “this one is from the hip of a stegosaurus!” And further down the road, at the Design District’s Moore Building, Stefano Tonchi and Dior Homme designer Kris Van Assche premiered **Bruce Weber’**s latest short film, Can I Make the Music Fly?, featuring Ukranian-born British Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin.

“I’ll see you at Chanel,” became the send-off of every conversation yesterday and the annual bash at the Soho Beach House, held in honor of Art.sy, delivered the boldest (and most surprising) names yet of the fair’s festivities. Martha Stewart, who stopped by the Webster as well, chatted with Demi Moore and Lenny Kravitz, who spent most of the night laughing together in the VIP area. Wendi Murdoch and Dasha Zhukova, both Art.sy advisors and investors, Laure Hériard Dubreuil (now in Chanel, naturally), Karlie Kloss, Claire Distenfeld, and Mia Moretti all took turns on the dance floor, which spilled out over the sand and eventually into the shore break, where the most adventurous of the guests took a plunge at the end of the night.